Women of Algiers in Their Apartment: a Study of Community in Exile
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Women of Algiers in their Apartment: A Study of Community in Exile An Honours Thesis for the Department of International Literary and Visual Studies Laura Kathryn Ann Tufts University, 2016 Dedications To my loving grandparents, Without whom none of this would be possible; To my past self, Laura circa Sept. 2015, who naively decided to write a thesis – You have no idea the ordeal you are about to put yourself through. Acknowledgements I wish to express my sincerest gratitude to Professor Claire Schub for her patience, her guidance, and her undying support. I was not always certain that I could bring my thesis to fruition, and I would never have succeeded without you! I also wish to thank Professor Isabelle Naginski, for her encouragement and direction throughout my career as an ILVS student. In addition, I am grateful for my family, who have endowed me with everything – thank you for getting me this far! Last but not least, I thank my faithful friends, who have stood staunchly by my side throughout the pains of this project. Thanks are due in particular to Hannah Gersten, Jacob Merrin, Joy Chee, and Iris Zhang, my fellow veterans of extreme academic endeavours – thank you for getting me through my darkest hour! Now let’s all finally get some sleep. TABLE OF CONTENTS Introduction ............................................................................................................................ 1 I. The Pains of Exile ................................................................................................... 3 a) Defining Exile ................................................................................................. 3 b) Colonialism as Exile ......................................................................................... 5 c) Patriarchal Oppression as Exile ........................................................................ 8 d) The Double Exile of Women .......................................................................... 10 II. Lies of Liberation .................................................................................................. 19 a) A Failed Homecoming ................................................................................... 19 b) A Situation Unchanged .................................................................................. 24 c) Falsehoods of the Revolution ......................................................................... 27 d) The Myth of the Revolutionary Woman ........................................................ 30 e) Women’s Wartime Experience, Discarded and Forgotten ............................. 38 III. Community in Exile .............................................................................................. 45 a) Community among Women ........................................................................... 45 b) Solidarity in Suffering .................................................................................... 51 c) The Sanctuary of Female Spaces .................................................................... 55 d) The Map of Memory ...................................................................................... 58 e) A Message of Hope ........................................................................................ 63 Conclusion ............................................................................................................................ 65 Bibliography ......................................................................................................................... 67 Introduction Born in Algeria, of Arabic descent, but educated within the colonial French system, Assia Djebar was a writer whose texts focus on the female experience during and after Algerian independence. In her work, Djebar captures the lives of Algerian women and reveals their personal and emotional struggles, challenging colonial and nationalist narratives of what women’s lives should be. In examining short stories written by Djebar both before and after Algerian independence, I discusses theme of inner exile as a result of colonial and patriarchal oppression. I define inner exile defined as the loss of community membership, such that one is banished from the homeland while remaining within one’s territorial borders. Inner exile can arise as subjects are prevented from full participation in their community, or when the society around them is altered and loses familiarity. In the discussion of women as subjects who have experienced both colonial and patriarchal oppression, I demonstrate that the inner exile of women is in fact a doubled experience. Thus, I argue that for Djebar’s Algerian women, exile manifests through isolation from greater society, second-class citizenship, and an exclusion from the national narrative. Furthermore, I question the possibility of a homeland for Algerian women, and exhibit the importance of feminine space in Djebar’s writing. Finally, I analyze Djebar’s use of women’s memory and oral tradition as a way of creating community within exile, and explain how this female community serves to alleviate the suffering of women. I decided to analyze my topic through Djebar’s writing specifically because of her own identity as a female, post-colonial writer in exile. Djebar’s personal struggles as a writer have included the post-colonial challenge of writing Algerian stories in the colonizer’s tongue, while giving voice to a female perspective on pain of persecution by patriarchal authorities. In this way, Djebar’s background reflects exactly the twofold condition of inner exile that I discuss. 1 Since I argue that the greatest factor of women’s inner exile has been the exclusion of their voice from the national narrative, I found it most apt to analyze a text that addresses the female perspective, especially as presented by a female writer who could herself identify with the state of inner exile I describe. I chose the collection Women of Algiers in their Apartment because of its singular focus on the female experience; in exhibiting the most private of female spaces and the most intimate moments of women’s lives, the collection provides a clear picture of women’s condition of doubled inner exile. In writing this thesis, it was my goal to embrace the interdisciplinary spirit of ILVS and use my training in both political science and literary studies to analyze issues of post- colonialism and feminism. Thus, I have juxtaposed non-fictional texts by Djebar, Edward Said, and Frantz Fanon alongside the literary works from Djebar’s collection of short stories. In doing so, I wish to demonstrate how literature and political theory at as mirrors for each other, presenting different perspectives on the same historical events (in this case – the events surrounding the condition of Algerian women before and after independence). While I understand that fiction does not necessarily reflect reality, I believe that the creation of literature can act as a means of hope by demonstrating an ideal to strive for. Not only is storytelling used as a motif for the building of community among fictional characters, but Djebar’s own storytelling can be seen as a greater effort to inspire empathy in her readers, and in so doing, to motivate them to make change. Therefore, through the depiction of female solidarity among fictional characters, Djebar’s literary work can be interpreted as offering a possible resolution to women’s suffering. 2 Chapter 1: The Pains of Exile Defining Exile The Oxford Dictionary defines exile as “the state of being barred from one’s native country, typically for political or punitive reasons.” Historically, exile was indeed used as a form of punishment in which one was expelled from one’s native land. Those banished into exile would be explicitly refused permission of re-entry, threatened with imprisonment or execution upon return. While such banishment is no longer used regularly as a form of punishment by the state, millions of people today are still forcibly displaced by circumstances such as war and political instability. A basic distinction may be drawn between those compelled to abandon their homes by decree of the state, by judicial sentence, or by fear of persecution or prosecution, and those who emigrate by choice in search of opportunity. Those who flee their homes know there is no other option – to remain or turn back home would only bring death. In his book Reflections on Exile, Edward Said describes exile as the “unhealable rift between a human being and a native place, between the self and its true home.”1 Expounding on Said’s description of exile, John Barbour2 adds to this idea of leaving the “true home,” explaining that to be in exile is to be constantly aware that one is out of place. Barbour adds that the experience of exile revolves around “a pivotal event of departure” and “a present condition of absence from one's native land.” Thus, he explains, exile involves orientation, being pointed toward a distant place and time, and also disorientation, feeling lost and at odds with one's immediate environment. If we take the above definitions of exile, it is interesting to note that the idea of exile is always tied to that of native land, a tangible, physical space. Sociologist Anthony Smith 1 Edward W. Said, “Reflections on Exile,” in Reflections on Exile and Other Essays, Convergences: Inventories of the Present 26 (Cambridge: Harvard University Press, 2002), 173. 2 John D. Barbour, “The Consolations and Compensations of Exile: Memoirs by Said, Ahmed, and